On Video, Friends Mock Unresponsive Man Who Died Hours Later

No charges will be filed against Indiana men
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 11, 2018 6:31 PM CDT
On Video, Friends Mock Unresponsive Man Who Died Hours Later
Stock photo   (Getty Images / katifcam)

A coroner calls it "probably the most blatant disregard for human life" he's ever seen, but no charges will be filed against two Indiana men seen in a video playing with the limp body of their friend hours before he died, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports. On Sunday morning, one of the men posted the video to Facebook; it showed an unresponsive Kyle Kearby, 21, slumped forward as the second man tied cord to Kearby's wrists to make him look like a puppet and then moved him around, including opening and closing his mouth, as both men sang "You've Got a Friend in Me." The man is also shown slapping Kearby, shaking his head, and pumping his chest. A Facebook friend of the man who posted the video tells the Times he captioned it, "One of my close friends passed away this morning. Please stop doing drugs. #fentanyl." Kearby died at a hospital Sunday afternoon.

Kearby's father says his son walked into their residence around 5:30am Sunday, some length of time after the video was filmed, but about seven hours later he was found covered in vomit and unresponsive in bed. He could not be revived and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Meanwhile, around 7am, the Facebook friend had asked the man who posted the video whether Kearby was really dead and the man said he was alive and home and that the video had been posted as a wake-up call for him. Authorities say that even if Kearby's friends knew he was in danger of dying, there is no law requiring them to report his condition to authorities. The men told authorities they were "horseplaying" with Kearby as they have done before, and had dropped him off at home after the video was filmed. "There was no foul play whatsoever," the county sheriff says. An autopsy will be done to determine what substances Kearby may have taken and what caused his death. (More drug overdose stories.)

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